Things I Learned This Week of July 23

Posted Friday, July 28, 2017, at 12:00 AM

Turf house in Iceland (Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

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This week of July 23 I learned...

Take a gander at whitepages.com. It’s the people-finding version of yellowpages.com. If you really want to have a look-see, search for yourself. Your findings might be surprising -- or disturbing, depending on your personality.

After a week or so of trying it out, I am now a Spotify fan. I was introduced to the thing three years ago, but it has taken this long to come around. Don’t judge me.

I particularly like how easy it is to find what I want to hear and the “Discover Weekly” feature that pays attention to what I listen to and then makes a playlist for my review.

The other day I went to delete Pandora from my bookmarks, and instead of going away it took me to the page. I felt so guilty! As if it would know I had defected. I split lickety-quick.

Also in the technology realm, I have discovered Overdrive. It’s an app that allows me to download entire books (Yes, en-ti-re books!) onto my phone from the Indiana Digital Download Center.

The best part: I don’t need an internet connection. After a full week, I’ve gotten through two books and started a third.

On a more back-to-our-roots level, I read about the turf houses of Iceland. Apologies to my fellow Tolkien fans, but it would seem hobbit holes were not entirely his idea.

Strapped for trees in a colder climate, the Vikings built stick frame houses and then covered them with sod bricks from bogs. The grass would grow over these houses, making for well-insulated and beautiful homes.

People came to use this traditional architecture throughout Europe and in the Great Plains of our own country, where they were called soddies.

It just goes to show that there’s always a way, and it’s God’s mercy that the thing you need is generally right where and when you need it. Just ask the Inuit about igloos and the insulating powers of snow.

From a culture quite different from the Vikings’, I also learned about a newly discovered tunnel under the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, an ancient city builtby Teotihuacans in modern-day Mexico.

This people dominated the area nearly 2,000 years ago, before the Aztecs that later inhabited the city. Archaeologists say the pyramid was likely a temple used for human sacrifice, and that the tunnel may represent the underworld in their belief system.

On a more positive note: Eyelashes. Magnetic eyelashes. I know, it shocked me too. Apparently instead of the traditional gluing of fake eyelashes to your eyelid, you can now just zip those bad boys right on without a fuss. I can't say I'd recommend it, but I wouldn't really even recommend mascara, so take it for what it's worth.